Champions League 2025/26 - Round of 16 - Barcelona

[geordie_b]

8 game with 24 going into the next phase really is too many games. Should be 8 games and 16 or 6 games and 24.

[ponsaelius]

1 hour ago, Optimistic Nut said:

 

Old format we'd only need a draw from 2 games if you'd won 3 out of 4 games, and you're safely in to the last 16. We have a helluva lot more work to do to reach last 16 as it stands now. 

 

Well yeah because we'd be 4/6 games rather than 4/8.

 

We're half way through a bloated calendar and it's almost guaranteed that the outcome will simply be a play-off to get to last 16, another additional round of games that didn't exist previously, and what was our heavily odds-on outcome before things even started.

 

It's a whole load of extra games for very little consequence. 

 

I've personally found the last few games pretty dull despite the supposed prestige and watching us win. Bradford at home had more jeopardy than these fixtures.

 

 

Edited November 6, 2025 by ponsaelius

[timeEd32]

8 hours ago, LaurentRobert said:

Getting into the top 8 does give you the  advantage of playing the 2nd leg at home, which considering our honking away form, could be very important. 

More importantly you play one of the playoff winners. 

[mosstef]

27 minutes ago, timeEd32 said:

More importantly you play one of the playoff winners. 

 

This.

Last season Villa finished in the top 8 and (only) had to beat Club Brugge over two legs to reach the quarter finals.

[TenkoDaLuz]

8 hours ago, LaurentRobert said:

Format does blow. Especially if you find yourself in no man's land (9th-24th) with 3 games to go. Not a lot to play for 

 

Seems like a lot of games for very little jeopardy. After this bloated group stage of 144 matches a mere 12 teams will be knocked out. That's a lot of huffing and puffing for very little consequence. 

 

Sport is about jeopardy and fine margins, but that clearly doesn't apply to the new CL group stage when you can lose 4 matches and still have a decent chance of progressing. 

 

I personally was far more invested in the group matches we had 2 seasons ago in our Group of Death. Every match felt crucial, now it just seems like a load of exhibition matches before the actual tournament begins in the new year. 

 

When we get into proper knockout football it will be unreal mind! Can't wait for that

 

 

 

I think format is interesting but I would like to still have the home/away thing against the same opponent.

[SteV]

10 minutes ago, mosstef said:

 

This.

Last season Villa finished in the top 8 and (only) had to beat Club Brugge over two legs to reach the quarter finals.

They did get a bit lucky in that Brugge finished 24th and ended up beating Atalanta (9th), whereas Liverpool ended up getting PSG (15th), so there’s definitely an element of lottery to it.

 

But I suppose you’re right, and you’d always take your chances against the majority that finish outside top 8.

[Jack14Bojangles]

 

Bayern are one of the title favorites for me this season.

Vincent Kompany is doing a really great job and has forged a close-knit group out of the players. That wasn't the case before his time.

They've become even more dominant in the Bundesliga this season. The first half against PSG was simply magnificent. Sixteen consecutive competitive wins. A very strong contender this year.

[SteV]

2 minutes ago, Jack14Bojangles said:

 

Bayern are one of the title favorites for me this season.

Vincent Kompany is doing a really great job and has forged a close-knit group out of the players. That wasn't the case before his time.

They've become even more dominant in the Bundesliga this season. The first half against PSG was simply magnificent. Sixteen consecutive competitive wins. A very strong contender this year.

Agreed, and that’s without Davies and Musiala as well.

[janpawel]

So say we don't finish top 8 but finish near the top of the 9-24 group

 

Do we then play 2 games against someone from the bottom of the 9-24 group, or is it random? 

 

And then if we progress, do we play someone near the bottom of the 1-8 group? 

[Jack14Bojangles]

5 minutes ago, janpawel said:

So say we don't finish top 8 but finish near the top of the 9-24 group

 

Do we then play 2 games against someone from the bottom of the 9-24 group, or is it random? 

 

And then if we progress, do we play someone near the bottom of the 1-8 group? 

9-24 10-23 11-22 and so on. The winners then have a home game against a team from the top 8.

[SteV]

Just now, janpawel said:

So say we don't finish top 8 but finish near the top of the 9-24 group

 

Do we then play 2 games against someone from the bottom of the 9-24 group, or is it random? 

 

And then if we progress, do we play someone near the bottom of the 1-8 group? 

It’s 9th v 24th, 10th v 23rd etc in the playoff round.

 

L16 is a bit different (see the Villa and Liverpool examples last season).

[Vaj]

12 minutes ago, Jack14Bojangles said:

9-24 10-23 11-22 and so on. The winners then have a home game against a team from the top 8.

Don't think it is quite as straight forward as that. I believe 9th or 10th plays 23rd or 24th and that is done as a draw, presumably to try and avoid teams from the same country playing each other.

 

If this was the final table and we finished 6th then we would play one of Barcelona, Chelsea, Bayer Leverkusen or Club Brugge with the first two playing the second two in the earlier round and it then being dependent on the draw. 

 

I could be wrong though!

 

Edit: Just checked last year and the only difference was Milan would have played Juventus and Feyenoord would have played PSV if it was completely done by position, but these flipped over presumably to avoid playing teams from their own country. 

 

 

Edited November 6, 2025 by Vaj

[SteV]

11 minutes ago, Vaj said:

Don't think it is quite as straight forward as that. I believe 9th or 10th plays 23rd or 24th and that is done as a draw, presumably to try and avoid teams from the same country playing each other.

 

If this was the final table and we finished 6th then we would play one of Barcelona, Chelsea, Bayer Leverkusen or Club Brugge with the first two playing the second two in the earlier round and it then being dependent on the draw. 

 

I could be wrong though!

Aye, that’s interesting, hadn’t realised. Should have been Milan v Juve going off league placing last season, but it wasn’t. 
 

Will have to have a closer look at the criteria for sorting that out.

[Sibierski]

Nah, you can face your own country. Just luck of the draw between which 2 sides you face, as PSG met Brest.

[ramirez]

Football meets data has us as 99.9% to qualify, with 36% of top 8, lower threshold for qualification than last season by sound of it.  At the very least if we miss out on top 8 we should finish 9-16 and get a seeded tie against 17-24 so have second leg at home, that would mean we have home first after that the way it worked last season, for people thinking of booking time off etc

[SteV]

[ponsaelius]

40 minutes ago, Vaj said:

Don't think it is quite as straight forward as that. I believe 9th or 10th plays 23rd or 24th and that is done as a draw, presumably to try and avoid teams from the same country playing each other.

 

If this was the final table and we finished 6th then we would play one of Barcelona, Chelsea, Bayer Leverkusen or Club Brugge with the first two playing the second two in the earlier round and it then being dependent on the draw. 

 

I could be wrong though!

 

Edit: Just checked last year and the only difference was Milan would have played Juventus and Feyenoord would have played PSV if it was completely done by position, but these flipped over presumably to avoid playing teams from their own country. 

 

 

 

 

Don't think it's anything to do with countries. It's just 9th-16th drawn randomly against 17th-24th. As pointed out Brest played PSG?

 

Unless that has changed this season.

 

 

Edited November 6, 2025 by ponsaelius

[ramirez]

Football ranking has us projected to play pafos or Frankfurt in the play off round, either would be  decent trip with direct flights from toon?

[timeEd32]

This is how it works with just two draws (playoff round and round of 16).

 

 

Seeded teams (9-16) get second leg at home in playoff.

 

1-8 teams get second leg at home in R16.

 

After that there's no more draw for home/away in the QF/SF. The higher placed team from league phase gets second leg at home, except that home priority can be stolen (e.g. if team 8 defeats team 1 in the QF then team 8 will have the second leg at home in the SF regardless of opponent).

[ponsaelius]

Yes that was right. There is a draw, but you've only got one of two possible teams you could play. IE if you finish 9th you could only possibly play 23rd/24th placed finishers.

[SteV]

Now we’ve established the criteria, can I ask what the point of that ‘mini-draw’ is?

 

Why not just have it fixed as 9th v 24th etc?

[ramirez]

I'm not sure on that either, to me it would have made sense to use an either or if they were avoiding repeated clashes or same country but that doesn't appear to be the case.

[Kilcline]

1 minute ago, SteV said:

Now we’ve established the criteria, can I ask what the point of that ‘mini-draw’ is?

 

Why not just have it fixed as 9th v 24th etc?

I've long wondered that and always assumed it was just an excuse for UEFA to have some pomp and circumstance and a bit of artificial theatre.

 

I suppose officially they might say it's to avoid predictability if it's obvious where teams are going to finish, but then they'd also say that part of the appeal of the new format is that uncertainty remains until the last game anyway, so who knows.

[timeEd32]

2 minutes ago, SteV said:

Now we’ve established the criteria, can I ask what the point of that ‘mini-draw’ is?

 

Why not just have it fixed as 9th v 24th etc?

 

I think the easy answer to that is money / "drama" / attention. Last season they still did home/away draws for the QF and SF but thankfully got talked into that being pointless. 

[Optimistic Nut]

4 hours ago, ponsaelius said:

 

Well yeah because we'd be 4/6 games rather than 4/8.

 

We're half way through a bloated calendar and it's almost guaranteed that the outcome will simply be a play-off to get to last 16, another additional round of games that didn't exist previously, and what was our heavily odds-on outcome before things even started.

 

It's a whole load of extra games for very little consequence. 

 

I've personally found the last few games pretty dull despite the supposed prestige and watching us win. Bradford at home had more jeopardy than these fixtures.

 

 

 

 

Each to their own. I'm enjoying it. Not often I've been watching Liverpool v Real Madrid and thinking, "if this stays like this and we win tomorrow, we'll go above both of these."